Fed may have to hike again, says JPMorgan chief

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said the Federal Reserve may have to keep increasing its benchmark interest rate in the coming months to combat persistent inflation. 

The central bank was “a day late and a dollar short” in beginning to raise rates and the rapid increases over the last 18 months were just “catching up,” Dimon said Wednesday at an event hosted by the Detroit Economic Club. 

Dimon spoke just before the Fed published its decision to leave rates unchanged, though officials signaled that borrowing costs will likely stay higher for longer after one more hike this year. 

“Odds are higher that they will have to go higher than they are today,” Dimon said. “I’m talking about four months from now, six months from now — that inflation will be at 4% and it won’t be coming down for a whole bunch of reasons.”

The central bank has spent much of the last 18 months fighting historic levels of inflation, which has decelerated in recent months. In response, the Fed has slowed the pace of rate increases after aggressively pushing the federal funds rate from near zero in early 2022 to above 5%. 

The longtime JPMorgan boss has been warning for more than a year that the US continues to face significant headwinds, including the ongoing war in Ukraine and other geopolitical tensions. In his annual letter to shareholders earlier this year, he called the landscape “unsettling.” 

“We have a very strong economy, but don’t confuse today with tomorrow,” Dimon said on Wednesday. “This other stuff is kind of tomorrow, and, if and when it affects the current economy, we’ll see.”

CHINA, AI

Dimon was in Detroit to mark the 90-year anniversary of JPMorgan’s presence in the city via predecessor firms as well as the 10-year anniversary of the firm’s renewed efforts there. The company has committed $200 million to Detroit’s economic recovery since it filed for bankruptcy in 2013. 

During the wide-ranging discussion Wednesday, he touched on everything from China and industrial policy to financial regulations and artificial intelligence. 

Biden administration officials are now “saying all the right stuff” on China, Dimon said. “We’re going to do what we’ve got to do for national security, unfair competition.” 

He reiterated that AI will be critical to JPMorgan’s future success. Earlier this year, the bank named Teresa Heitsenrether, who’s been with the firm for more than three decades, to lead a newly-formed data and analytics unit that will manage the firm’s efforts with the technology. 

AI is “the next new thing,” Dimon said. The technology will “be deployed in every single part of the company.”